Tesco's new boss wants to take troubled grocer back to core values

Tesco's
new boss wants to take the troubled grocer back to its core values,
admitting the retailer’s reputation has been damaged along with staff
morale.

Dave
Lewis, who joined from consumer goods giant Unilever on Monday, said
his first week has been a ‘quite a roller coaster’ in an interview
posted by Tesco on the YouTube video-sharing website.

In
the stage-managed broadcast the grocer’s fledgling chief executive
said: ‘I am going to spend some time listening, spend some time learning
and observing from colleagues as to what it is they think we could be
doing.

‘But I do
think it’s pretty clear we have to get back to the core of our business
in price, availability, and service. What it is that customers need
from us so that they reward us with their loyalty.’

Britain’s
biggest grocer has been losing market share to the discounters as
shoppers seek low-cost deals and prefer to make more frequent smaller
trips in place of one weekly food shop.

It has issued three profit warnings over the past three years, two within the past month.

Lewis
said the chance to take the job was ‘an absolutely unmissable
opportunity’ and he described his first day as being in a state of
‘nice, excited nervousness’.

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The new face at the top acknowledged Tesco (down 3.15p to 229.45p) was in a difficult place.

‘I
get it, I understand.’ he said. ‘I am not naïve to the position of the
brand and the reputation. But I only see that as an opportunity.

‘The great thing about brands is it is easy to talk but actually you change reputation by doing.’

Lewis,
pictured, plans to visit some of Tesco’s international chains but made a
commitment not to shut foreign operations in the short-term.

‘I
am not going to be making any hasty knee-jerk decisions and am happy
with the business we have got,’ he said. On replacing the team he said:
‘Will there be changes? Let’s be honest there has to be.’